Epress.am News from Armenia
On the parliament's agenda is a draft of the new Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (RA) that proposes no longer considering news reports sufficient grounds to launch a criminal case.
The news media's "intervention" in launching criminal cases is limited not only by this amendment: the new law also increases the list of private prosecution cases, and to start proceedings in such cases, the injured party's complaint is mandatory.
Cases of private prosecution will become, for example, the articles on inflicting medium gravity or grave damage to health by exceeding the limits of necessary defense, beating, leaving at risk, violating copyright and related rights, a child wilfully evading to take care of his disabled parent, destroying or damaging property due to negligence, misusing a trademark, breaking traffic and vehicle operation rules.
Currently, cases falling under the aforementioned articles are considered public prosecution cases and proceedings can begin regardless of whether the victim submits a complaint or not.
Ruling Republican Party of Armenia MP, lawyer Arpine Hovhannisyan considers the amendment to be positive.
"The preliminary investigative body, the investigator must decide to institute [criminal] proceedings on the basis of a news report or not. Often media reports, in fact, are more like gossip and rumors than [based] on substantiated facts. And launching a criminal case involves a number of actions that are related to human rights, detention, and so on," said Hovhannisyan, in conversation with Epress.am.
According to her, also positive is that if, nevertheless, the investigator trusts the news story and finds facts, then the given news media enjoys all the rights prescribed by law for a person who submits a claim.
As Hovhannisyan remarked that a large number of criminal cases in connection with traffic rule violations were launched, which won't be the case if the bill is adopted. According to her, such cases also contain corruption risks.
Attorney Harutyun Baghdasaryan also considers the changes positive and within the logic of restricting the rights of news media worldwide. However, from the perspective of human rights, he doesn't consider it a positive development, since the change doesn't take into account the psychology of victims in Armenia.
"Familial relationships are very important in Armenia. Everyone thinks about the opinions of their neighbors — they have a problem of greeting their neighbors. They are not free to complain. A woman abused by her husband at home won't complain against her husband. Experience shows that in such cases, when local circumstances are not taken into account, the laws do not work. This bill too, even if it passes, it won't work; again, there will be a need for amendments," he said.